Quarrendon and Meadowcroft Community Association recently hosted the Annual Individual Competitions for Division Two and Three in the Aylesbury and District Table Tennis League.

Division Two attracted only 6 entries from which 2 groups of 3 players competed to find the semi finalists. Lee Mallick (Haddenham), Daniel Creanga (Brill) and James Uchuno (Sports) in group one played some spirited attacking table tennis. Lee’s undoubted pedigree produced wins but Daniel and James seemed equally matched. James took a 2-0 lead, but Daniel improved his game to snatch the semi final spot in 5 sets.

In the second group Ken Hill (Bishopstone) was undefeated and James Gibson (Haddenham) proved too quick for Sports’ Nobby Tennison. James faced Lee Mallick and went close with one deuce set losing in 3 sets and Daniel played old hand, Ken Hill. Daniel overcame Ken’s consistency to win and have a rematch with Lee in the final. With youth on his side and his game improving as the evening progressed, Daniel stretched Lee’s stamina to breaking point. Taking the first set on deuce, Daniel eased through the next two sets to become Division Two Champion for 2018.

DIVISION THREE 2018

DAVE STEVENS DOES IT AGAIN

Seventeen players from Division Three in the Aylesbury and District Table Tennis League competed for the Annual Individual Title. Since its inauguration in 2011, Dave Stevens from Risborough has won the Title 3 times and was Champion last year. As a result he was favourite going in to the early group games and faced tough challenges from his compatriot Nick Solway and Quarrendon’s Jack Clark, dropping sets but topping his group. His other club compatriot, David Simpson was taken to 5 sets by Quarrendon’s Tom Ludlow in his group and together they joined Ed Lock and Jack Bacon (Quarrendon), Phil Blind and Bill McCafferty (Sports) and Yohan Chapelle (Haddenham) in the quarter finals.

David Simpson struggled to beat Nick Solway, 14-12 in the fifth set, then faced another uphill struggle over 5 sets against Phil. Keeping his concentration he moved into the final. Dave Stevens had to work hard to overcome Ed Lock, but then had an easier task against Bill who had been exhausted beating Tom 3-1 with two deuce sets.

The final between two team mates, Dave Stevens and David Simpson was a strange affair. Possibly David Simpson could not settle, but he lost the first set 11-0. However, he pulled his game together to lead and win the second set 13-11. He maintained a consistent competitive game where the result could have gone his way, but the ever thoughtful match play shown by Dave Stevens took him through 11-9,11-9 to retain the 2018 Division Three Crown making it a fourth win.

In a competitive Consolation event Stephen Ash (Haddenham) beat a spirited Tim Berendt 8,9 & 7 in the final

DIVISION ONE TOURNAMENT

DUANE OUSTS MIKE AND TONY TO TAKE TITLE

Seventeen players from the second tier of Aylesbury and District Table Tennis League competed last week for the crown of Division One Champion 2018. All the seeded players from the group stage moved into the Quarter Finals with Duane Brooks facing his Bierton team mate, Graham Butcher, last year’s champion, Mike Atkinson, and his team mate from Sports, Tony Wheeler, having byes, but Mike Aistrop (Bierton) had the Bishopstone star, Mark Dixon to overcome.

Duane was surprised by the improved match play that Graham has shown as the season has progressed. He has persisted successfully with his pimpled rubber but, Duane, with his own specialised bat, won a close encounter 3-1. Mark Dixon’s all out attack coped well with Mike Aistrop’s tricky spin play to set up a mouth watering encounter with the left handed all out attack of Tony Wheeler. The first set was nip and tuck which Tony took on deuce, then he confidently took the remaining two sets to go into the final. The other semi final saw Duane Brooks oozing control to outdo Mike Atkinson in three sets.

The final was a one way affair where Duane upset the attacking flow from Tony and was a step ahead of him to take the Division One Title for 2018 in three sets.

In the Consolation event there were close games between equally talented players with Tim Sallis taking the plaudits in the final in 5 sets from David Badham

JP SHOWS CLASS IN HANDICAP WIN

The Annual Table Tennis Handicap Competition took place at Quarrendon & Meadowcroft Community Association on Monday 26 March with 31 entrants from across the Aylesbury League.

The players were placed in 8 groups to determine who would compete in the knockout stage. This gave the younger players a chance to show the seniors how well they have improved through the season. Marlie Gregory and Luke Riley were unlucky not to get through, Luke losing by just 3 points to Brian Whitehead. Elsewhere Oscar Hofhansl beat his group’s winner, Paul Hartnell, but lost by 3 points to Ridgeway’s Jeff Amor. While these youngsters just failed to move into the knockout stage, Jean-Paul Yoxall from Tring excelled by winning his group against seasoned campaigner Dave Wackrill and tough Division One representative, Barry Hammond.

In the knockout JP won well against Bill McCafferty, Neill Bishop and Ed Lock to reach the final. His match against Quarrendon’s Ed was a good example of improving top spin against well directed counter hits from Ed. In the other half of the draw, Tournament Organiser, Tony Greenham, was enjoying a brilliant spell of play with excellent wins against Pete Edwards, Bob Croucher and Jeff Amor, both from Ridgeway.

Tony had a 1 point advantage going into the final but JP had so much confidence from previous matches that he bossed the game throughout with good serves and thoughtful matchplay and ran out winner, 21-10,21-10. Jp Yoxall is Aylesbury’s 2018 Table Tennis Handicap Champion. Well played to everyone and Congratulations to our newest and youngest Champion.

TOURNAMENT DAY 25/3/2018

Thank you to Tony Greenham for organising a superb days table tennis.

We saw some brilliant match ups not least in the singles where the quarter final places were filled with top Premier players. The semi finals were between Elson Costa and Andy Misseldine and Darren Palmer and Lee Rogerson. Elson faced Lee in a pulsating and fast attacking final with Elson coming out as 2018 Singles Champion.

The Doubles had the same players combining for some superb matches on the show court. Here Andy Misseldine and Darren Palmer won in a frenetic final against Elson and Jim Welch. The semi finals on show were worthy finals on their own.

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Report below with grid of winners and runners up.

Quarrendon & Meadowcroft Community Association once again hosted the Aylesbury Annual Table Tennis Closed Tournament on 25 March when over 30 players competed in 5 events.

Last year’s singles winner, Lee Rogerson from Bellingdon, was again in top form and took part in the doubles with his team mate, Stuart Brown. Jim Welch also from Bellingdon teamed up with Haddenham A’s, Elson Costa. With Andy Misseldine and Darren Palmer meeting up with David Croucher (Sports) and Gary Keers (Ridgeway), the semi finals of the doubles event was a top class show in the early part of the day giving a spectacular exhibition of table tennis. Andy and Darren beat Gary and Dave in 5 hard sets to meet Elson and Jim, who won in 4 sets against Lee and Stuart. Here Darren was astounding with his attack and he and Andy won a fast and furious final to be 2018 Doubles Champions.

This was a brilliant taster for the singles where the quarter final protagonists were all Top Premier Division players, including past winners, Craig Brown, Alan Cherry and Andy Misseldine. Elson Costa was making his first appearance in the Aylesbury Tournament. He first had a difficult encounter with Alan Cherry, winning in 5 sets to then meet Team mate, Andy, who had beaten Dave Croucher in 4 sets. Knowing each other’s games we saw a tactical match in which Elson prevailed to reach the final. In the other half of the draw, Darren Palmer was in good form beating Craig Brown who in turn had ousted another past champion, Dave Ralls from Quainton. Darren met Lee Rogerson who had seen off the challenge of Jim Welch in the semi final. The nature of their styles gave a startlingly fast game which Lee won in 4 sets. The final between defending champ, Lee, and Elson was top class. Lee moved into a 2 set lead looking ominously capable of taking the Title, but his game stalled against the never say die penhold style displayed by Elson, who became more confident and first levelled at 2-2 and then took the fifth set to become Aylesbury’s 2018 singles Champion.

The Veterans events saw reruns of these games where Alan Cherry achieved revenge against Elson to reach the final. Lee overcame Andy but fell against Alan’s tricky matchplay to once again be runner up. Alan has won this event three year’s running. The Senior/Super Veterans again saw Alan in the final, but this time Andy Misseldine was too good for him, winning in 4 sets, the first one 16-14. We ran a consolation singles this year which was won by Tony Wheeler with Jock Campbell, both from Sports, as runner up.

Event

Winner

Runner Up

Singles

Elson Costa

Lee Rogerson

Doubles

Andy Misseldine and Darren Palmer

Elson Costa and Jim Welch

Veterans

Alan Cherry

Lee Rogerson

Senior Vets

Andy Misseldine

Alan Cherry

Singles Consolation

Tony Wheeler

Jock Campbell

First win for Jack in the Handicap

2/6/17

With last year’s winner, Tim Cheek, not taking part players from Aylesbury and District met to decide the 2017 Table Tennis Handicap Champion at Quarrendon Community Association last Wednesday.

There were 24 entries divided into 6 groups of 4 with the top 2 going through. Dave Ralls, Dave Wackrill and Duane Brooks represented the Premier Division, all conceding bags of points to their Lower Division opponents. Nevertheless the two Daves made it through to the quarter-finals where Dave Ralls perished against Dafna Dekel from Division One. Dave Wackrill hung on in though, surviving 2 match points to Tim Berendt to reach the semi-final where he lost to the eventual winner, a youngster who smashed everything past him to win 21-2, 21-3 having a 15 points start.

This was 14 years old, Jack Bacon from Quarrendon, a keen table tennis devotee. He had dispatched Steve Rycraft and Tony Wheeler, both from Division One before beating Dave to face the 2008 winner, Barry Hammond from Sports in the final. Barry had beaten off the challenge of James Gibson before winning a close semi final against club colleague, Dafna. In the final Jack used his 9 point advantage wisely always forcing Barry onto the defensive with some cracking attacking shots. He didn’t allow Barry to take control and won 21-16, 21-18 to take his first major Trophy. Congratulations to Jack and commiserations to Barry.

Yohan Chapelle won the plate beating James Uchuno 21-23, 21-19, 21-18 in the final.

Martin Taylor wins Div Two and Dave Stevens wins Div Three

6/5/17

Players from Divisions Two and Three in the Aylesbury Table Tennis League competed for the Individual Championships at Quarrendon Community Association on 3 May. Twelve players from Division Two battled in 4 groups for the two knockout stage places. Toughest of these involved top seed Martin Taylor and his Rivets Team Mate, Paul Entecott with Bishopstone’s Vic Davies. Each had one win, but on sets won, Paul and Martin went through to join Gerry Saunders, Steve Casey, Pat Boswell, Dave Barnacle, Bill McCafferty and Quarrendon youngster, Jack Bacon. Close encounters were the order in all matches leading to semi final confrontations between Martin Taylor and his other Rivets team mate, Pat Boswell alongside Paul Entecott and Bishopstone’s Dave Barnacle. Martin took 5 sets to overcome Pat whilst Dave did enough to beat Paul in 4 sets. The final promised to be another close affair especially when Dave won the first set with ease 11-3. Martin’s style is to strengthen his defence and this had the effect of forcing Dave to make the play which stifled his game. Martin pulled out to win 11-4, 11-5, and 11-6 to take the 2017 Division Two Title.

Sam Veragoo from Sports won the consolation singles.

Division Three witnessed the reappearance of a past winner from Risborough, Dave Stevens, who was also defending his 100% record. He did not disappoint, moving fluently through the group stage dropping just one set against Tring’s Charles Ashwell. All the top seeds came through unscathed to see Dave going into the semi final at the expense of Quarrendon’s Tim Rolls. Charles defeated Quarrendon’s best player, Tim Berendt and Phil Blind from Aylesbury Sports overcame Longwick’s Peter Messenger. Andrew Bramwell (Tring) got the better of Risborough’s David Simpson in 4 sets.

In the semi finals Phil made Dave Stevens defend resolutely to win in three sets whilst Andrew kept Charles at bay to face Dave in the final. Once again Dave showed his class winning the Division Three Title in three fairly comfortable sets.

The consolation singles was a win for Ray Sippit in 4 sets against his Bishopstone compatriot, Wanda Heppenheimer.

MIKE ATKINSON TAKES DIV ONE

Seventeen of the top Aylesbury and District Division One Table Tennis players competed last Wednesday at Quarrendon Community Association for this season’s Individual Championship.

From the group stages 10 players went into the knockout stage including top seeds Mike Atkinson and Andy Bradley. Surprise qualifiers were Barry Hammond and David Badham from Sports and Clive Westbury (Longwick). Barry fell to Bishopstone’s Paul Rickard who then provided too many problems for Clive. Andy Bradley had a difficult 5 set encounter with Tony Wheeler (Longwick), but then accounted for Paul in 3 sets to reach the final. In the other side of the draw David overcame Tring’s Frank Beck in a tough 5 set match, but fell to Quainton’s Paul Reynolds and his fast, tricky play in 4 sets. Mike Atkinson had eliminated Quainton’s Oxford based player, Mike Aistrop and then coped admirably with Paul in 3 sets to meet Andy in the final.

As in their league encounter Andy led Mike in the first set winning 12-10, but his control deserted him in the second which he lost 11-3. A change of plan was needed and the third set was much closer. Mike showed staunch defence to see it out 13-11, but Andy continued to take the fight to Mike and won the fourth with ease, 11-7. Mike galloped away to a 5-1 lead in the fifth set. Andy tried to impose a fight back to 9-8, but Mike saw it through 11-8 to take the Champions plaudits and endorse his season’s 100% record.

Congratulations to both for a worthy final and especially to Mike for winning the Tournament.

Quarrendon and Meadowcroft Community Association hosted the Aylesbury Annual Table Tennis Championships on Sunday 26 February. The event attracted top players in the local league with 2015 winner Dave Ralls from Quainton looking to add to his tally. However his route to the final was not smooth, first having to overcome Haddenham’s Ben Rolfe in 5 sets, where he was 2-1 down before smashing his way through to meet club mate, James McCafferty. Knowing each other’s game inside out this was never likely to be an easy match. It was fast and furious, both players looking to take the quick third ball route and went to 5 sets with Dave victorious 11-7.

Alan Cherry, winner from 2012, had fought his way to the semi final encounter with Dave and this was a similar type of match although Dave seemed in full flow when 2 sets up. Alan levelled then lost 11-7 in the fifth.

Meanwhile Lee at the other end of the draw had moved effortlessly through to the final taking Clive Westbury, James George and Stuart Brown all in three sets. The final was set to be a fast flowing game with little time for strategy and Dave took a one set lead (only the second set that Lee had lost all day, having lost one set to Ben Rolfe in the group stage). Lee then managed to put Dave’s low, flat, hard hits under pressure and gradually assumed domination to win 3-1.What a grand final and Congratulations to Lee, our 2017 Singles Champion.

Singles

Alan Cherry

Tim Cheek

Cherry 4/7/5

James McCafferty

Ralls 7/10/-5/-11/7

Dave Ralls

Ralls 9/-8/7/-9/7

2017 Champion

Mike Wilkins

Lee Rogerson

Stuart Brown

Brown 7/11/10

-5/6/7/5

James George

Rogerson 4/9/7

Lee Rogerson

Rogerson 7/4/5

Doubles

Rogerson/Brown

Rogerson/Brown

Brooks/Dekel

8/7/5

Rogerson/Brown

2017 Champions

Badham/Edwards

McCafferty/Ralls

2/4/-8/3

Rogerson/Brown

J McCafferty/Ralls

4/4/2

0/6/10

Rolfe/Hawkes

Rolfe/Hawkes

Wilkins/Cheek

Wheeler/B Whitehead

3/9/8

5/5/7

J George/Lyons

Wilkins/Cheek

Wilkins/Cheek

3/3/-6/5

Veterans

Alan Cherry

Cherry

Dave Wackrill

6/5/9

Cherry

Alex Pratt

Wilkins

8/-6/9/-6/10

2017 Champion

Mike Wilkins

9/6/10

Alan Cherry

Tim Cheek

Cheek

Cheek

8/-9/8/9

Tony Wheeler

7/9/9

10/2/6

James McCafferty

McCafferty

Lee Rogerson

6/9/8

Super Veterans

David Badham

Alan Cherry

Sam Veragoo

Badham -4/10/6/-8/11

Badham

David Wackrill

11/9/12

Cherry

2017 Champion

Mike Atkinson

Atkinson 9/5/5

8/8/7

Alan Cherry

Clive Westbury

-8/5/4/6

Bill McCafferty

Blind 5/4/8

Atkinson

Wilkins

Phil Blind

10/7/6

-10/8/-6/7/7

Mike Wilkins

Lee and Stuart Brown took the doubles final frightening their opponents. Tim Cheek and Mike Wilkins with a 11-0 first set win. Tim and Mike were playing together for the first time whereas Lee and Stuart regularly play for their club, so it was understandable that Tim and Mike would need time to find a strategy, evidenced by 12-10 third set loss. Well played Stuart and Lee.

In the Vets and Super Vets things were dominated by Mike Wilkins and Alan Cherry who played each other twice, once in the final of the Super Vets and then in the semi final of the Vets. Alan won the final of the Super Vets in 4 sets but Mike had learnt enough to extend him to 5 sets in the semi final encounter. Alan turned up the pressure at deuce in the fifth set to win 12-10. This had left Tim Cheek having to wait for a long time to play Alan in the final of the Vets. Although Tim fought hard he was unable to prevent Alan winning in four sets. Congratulations to the winner of both competitions, Alan Cherry.

NEW DIV THREE CHAMP-DAVID BARNACLE

Past champions, Phil Blind, Paul Unwin and Brian Whitehead joined 13 other competitors from Division Three to compete for this year’s Title. Favourite this year was top player Martin Taylor from Rivets and he together with Quarrendon’s Craig Saunders, Bucks’ David Barnacle and Tring’s Andrew Bramwell moved into the knockout stage as Group Winners. Runners up Paul Unwin (Quainton), Phil Blind (Sports), Wanda Heppenheimer and Brian Whitehead, both Bucks, joined them to fight for the Title.

The exception to the expected successful group winners was David Simpson but he was placed in a strong group where Martin Taylor and Paul Unwin prevailed. David, however, achieved some success by beating Derek Marlow in the consolation final.

Martin moved into the semi final by beating Wanda to play Phil Blind who had knocked out strong player, Andrew Bramwell. Here Phil continued in sublime form to overturn expectations beating Martin 3-1 and deuce in the fourth leg to go into the final. In the other half of the draw David Barnacle recorded a 4 set victory against Paul to face strong second favourite, Brian Whitehead who had struggled to fend off Craig in 5 sets, having been 2 sets down. Against David, Brian faced another torrid close game but this time he went two sets up, both 11-9. David turned the tables winning the next two sets 11-9 but then seemed down and out at 10-6 in the fifth. With intense concentration he pulled back the deficit and won 12-10 to go into the final.

Phil had been beaten in league matches against David and was searching for a way to counter his steady spin shots. He struggled, however, to put David under any pressure and slipped away in three sets, losing 11-9 in the third. Congratulations to David Barnacle who is our new Division Three Champion for 2016.

DIVISION TWO TOURNAMENT – 2016

MARTIN GILLETT TAKES THE DIV TWO TITLE

A reduced but very strong entry to this year’s Division Two Tournament took place at Quarrendon and Meadowcroft Community Association on 20 April. Nine players in three groups contested for places in two semi final groups. Top seed Olu Sokoya (Sports) beat David Shapter and Martin Gillett, both from Bucks, to qualify and Martin won two close sets against David to finish runner up. In the other groups Frank Beck (Tring) topped Group 2 followed by Ken Hill (Bucks) despite a strong 5 set contest with Brill’s Pete Nicholson. Pete Edwards from Sports won group 3 beating both Bucks players, David Bradbury and Gerry Saunders with David runner up.

Going into the semi final groups Pete overcame club colleague Olu in 5 sets and Bucks Stalwart, Ken Hill also in 5 sets to meet Martin Gillett in the final. Martin had gradually improved his game with a strong 4 set win against Frank Beck and three sets against David Bradbury. The final was hard fought with Pete taking an early one set lead. Martin levelled and then followed two sets of point for point play with Martin easing ahead 14-12, 12-10 to take this year’s Title. Congratulations go to both players for producing a close game of high standards.

This year’s Division One Tournament attracted 15 entries and proved to be highly competitive with some top class table tennis. Last year’s Champion, Duane Brooks, was favourite having lost only once in the season to Bradley Matthews from Sports. The players were placed into 5 groups with two to go into a knockout but there was an upset when James George from Tring beat Duane in the opening game with a good attacking game in 4 sets. James then had to fight hard to beat Bucks player, Steve Rycraft in 5 sets to win the group. Duane qualified for the knockout in second place.

Other top seeds, Atif Kaudri and Bradley Matthews ( both Sports), progressed without difficulty but Mike Aistrop (Quainton) lost to Gordon Whitehead ( Tring) to qualify as a runner up. Jock Campbell, David Badham (both Sports), Clive Westbury and Tony Wheeler both Longwick made up the numbers for the knockout. Mike made short work of Tony and Clive was much too sharp for David. Young James George earned a semi final place with a fine win against Jock but Bradley was pushed all the way by Mike winning 11-7 in the fifth set to meet James. Bradley was still recovering from the battle with Mike and let James in with a first set win. He then took control to win 3-1 to go into the final.

In the other half of the draw Clive continued in blistering form against Gordon, winning in four sets. Atif faced his only league conqueror, Duane, and lost in three close sets. Duane then faced Clive in the semi final and must have been concerned from their recent league meeting when Clive pushed him to 5 sets. However, Duane won 3-1 to play Bradley in the final. Bradley was taking time to settle in all his games and lost the first two sets without venturing to make Duane work. In the third set he changed his style bringing more top spin into play and eventually levelled the match. The final set was a high class affair with Duane tightening his game to counter Bradley’s attack and Bradley being less adventurous. At 10-8 Bradley made a hurried shot into the net to give Duane hope, but then remembered the shot that was productive, a back hand loop which Duane pushed long to hand the Title over to Bradley for 2016.

It was a skilful final between two Premier standard players and the competition as a whole was enjoyed by all participants.

In the Plate Dom Palmigiano faced his Sports team mate, Josh Edworthy in the final, another good match up which Dom won.

AYLESBURY HANDICAP 2016

TIM TAKES TITLE

This year’s Table Tennis Handicap Tournament at Quarrendon attracted 32 entries from across the 4 Divisions of the Aylesbury League. Group games produced 4 Premier players among the 16 in the first round. Of these Quainton’s Chris Weatherby and James McCafferty moved into the Quarter Finals at the expense of Pete Edwards and Craig Saunders despite their points advantage, only to meet each other. They put on a terrific display playing off equal handicaps with Chris triumphant 22-20,20-22,21-19. Chris then met Dom Palmigiano from Sports who had earned his place in the last 16 by winning his group ahead of Atif Kaudri. Dom had beaten Jock Campbell and David Barnacle before then hitting hard against a weary Chris to reach the final. He then had to wait to see who would win through from the bottom half of the draw. Here his team mates Josh Edworthy and Bradley Matthews had success against Terry Lau and Tim Sallis. But their success then ended with Josh losing to Tim Cheek who had the highest handicap and Bradley lost to Dave Bradbury who was playing superbly. Dave used his forceful forehand to take the first leg against Tim, but Tim with a 13 point deficit to overcome ground out wins in the remaining sets to meet Dom in the final. Dom benefited from an 11 point start but couldn’t maintain his attack against a varied and thoughtful spin game that Tim employed. Tim won 21-16, 21-17 to take the 2016 Handicap Title.

ANNUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

CRAIG WINS FIRST TITLE BUT ALAN TRIES TO SWEEP THE BOARD.

EVENT

WINNER

RUNNER UP

SINGLES

Craig Brown (Bierton)

Alan Cherry (Bierton)

DOUBLES

Andy Misseldine & Darren Palmer (Haddenham)

Alan Cherry & Craig Brown (Bierton)

VETERANS

Alan Cherry (Bierton)

Andy Misseldine(Haddenham)

S/VETS

Alan Cherry (Bierton)

Mike Atkinson (Sports)

The Annual Table Tennis Championships at Quarrendon and Meadowcroft Community Association attracted over 30 players this year including defending singles champion from Quainton, Dave Ralls. The higher ranked players in the singles groups moved easily into the knockout stage with past champions Alan Cherry and Andy Misseldine favourites to meet in the final. There were some close encounters in the early rounds with Bellingdon’s Jim Welch needing to go into 5 sets to defeat Tring’s rising star, Matt George. Darren Palmer from Haddenham was similarly pushed hard by Quainton’s James McCafferty only winning 13-11 in the fifth set. The upset of the day was a 4 set victory for Champion Dave Ralls against Haddenham’s best player, Andy Misseldine. Dave then faced Bierton’s Craig Brown who he defeated in last year’s final. This time, at semi final stage, Craig put more spin into his play and managed to win in 4 sets. In the other half of the draw Bierton’s Alan Cherry beat Stuart Brown (Bellingdon), then Tim Cheek (Sports) and Darren Palmer to face his team mate in the final. The first two sets went Craig’s way both 11-9, then Alan tightened his game to draw level. The fifth set was touch and go, but Craig kept his cool and triumphed 11-9 to win his first Aylesbury Title.

Previously Alan and Craig were runners up in the doubles where Andy Misseldine and Darren Palmer triumphed for the first time as a partnership. Having been runner up twice, Alan Cherry played his way through the Veterans and Super Veterans events displaying amazing stamina and intelligent match play. He defeated his team mate, Mick Wilkins twice, and in the final overcame four times Super Vet Champ, Mike Atkinson who had earlier put out Dave Wackrill, winner for the past three years. The Veterans event was a testing affair with Andy Misseldine (winner in 2014 and 2015) having reached the final some time earlier. He had a long wait while Alan prevailed against Mick Wilkins and Darren Palmer, so it was no surprise that he took time to reach his best form, duly losing the first set. He levelled 11-8, and then followed a frantic attack, defence and counter attack with Alan winning 17-15, 12-10. It was a terrific worthy final to bring the day to a close.

Last Updated: Saturday 21st April 2018

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Aylesbury Table Tennis League is a table tennis league affiliated to Table Tennis England.